Here's a culinary quiz: What recipe calls for 10,000 pounds of potatoes, 20,000 bratwurst, 15,000 pieces of pastry and torte and 8,000 pounds of onions? The recipe for Milwaukee's German Fest, natürlich!

From strudel to spanferkel and lederhosen to dirndls, German culture, music, food and drink will fill the Maier Festival Park from Thursday through Sunday.

The festival will fill more than just the park, reaching for the skies this year by hosting Milwaukee's first nighttime air show.

"To the best of knowledge, and we have searched the records, this is the first nighttime air show in Milwaukee," said German Fest vice president Koby Scheel. "These will be many of the same performers flying the Milwaukee Air & Water Show but their performances will be different, of course."

The Milwaukee Air & Water Show takes place between Bradford and McKinley Beaches on Saturday and Sunday. The German Fest nighttime air show feature aerobatics and stunts with special lighting and pyrotechnics in the airspace just east of the Maier Festival Park. The show will begin at, or possibly a bit before, 7:30 on Saturday evening.

Explaining that many of the Milwaukee Air Show acts perform a number of night shows throughout the summer show season, Scheel said that night lighting on the planes and additional lighting effects will make the planes and performers clearly visible to the audience.

Among the performers to be featured are the U.S. Army Golden Knights, executing a parachute jump with pyrotechnics to Lakeshore State Park, the island to the east of the festival grounds, as well as the Lima Lima Aerobatic Team and aerobatic pilots Bob Davis and Sean Tucker.

Also on the docket are a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter dropping divers into the lagoon between the grounds and the island, as well as some wing walking overhead.

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, which will be seen at the Milwaukee Air & Water Show, will not be able to perform at the German Fest show. According to Scheel, their high-speed precision flying would conflict with Mitchell International Airport airspace.

The festival also will fill the night sky with fireworks displays at 10:30 on Friday and Saturday and 9:30 Sunday.

Significantly closer to the ground, festival-goers will be able to enjoy dachshund races, and yes these races are as funny as you might think, as well as a dachshund-costume competition at the aptly named Dachshund Park near the center of the festival grounds.

Klaus Fromme, German Fest president, explained that German Fest limits registration for the dachshund races, saying, "The races are just packed. This is really popular. They fill up weeks in advance of the festival."

German music and dance will fill the various stages across the grounds, featuring German performers such as vocalist Styrina and the Munich-based band Chikeria and the Austrian Widderstein-Buaba band.

A few groups hailing from significantly closer to home, such as the Chicago-based Johnny Wagner Band and Wisconsin's own Johnny Hoffmann & Die Herzuben and the Freistadt Alte Kameraden Band, will give a musical nod to the depth of German culture here in the Midwest.

No Milwaukee celebration of all things German would be complete without a few hands of sheepshead (schafkopf), a card game that came to these parts with German immigrants and took on a local life of its own.

Hands start on the hour beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 4 p.m. on Friday, and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday in the tent behind the Leinie's stage. Be advised: the Mauers, Schneiders, Schwartzes and Schmeers you find at the sheepshead tables will be game terms, not family surnames.

Among new attractions at the festival this year, Fromme listed the Porsche Club of America's Car Display, which will feature a selection of Porsches that will change each day. On the opposite end of the automotive spectrum, an East German Trabant will be on display in the culture area.

No matter what else you do at German Fest, you really must eat and drink. Highlights of the festival's menu include kartoffel (potato pancakes) with pfannkuchen (applesauce) or spanferkel (pig, roasted whole). Rollbraten, schnitzel and Kasseler Rippchen, all succulent pork dishes, go well with a noedel (dumpling) or two.

"Our potato pancakes are made fresh," Fromme said of this staple of German cooking. "The potatoes are peeled right here on the grounds."

Don't forget dessert. Bienenstichkuchen (Bee Sting cake), a traditional, custard-filled, honey and almond-topped wonder of a coffeecake, and schwarzwalder kirschtorte, a chocolate/cherry cake event, are part of a long roster of available sweets.

Fromme added that German Fest is offering free admission to the festival on Thursday, as well as a one-dollar discount Thursday on all foods and beverages sold by German Fest operations.

Citing the economy and a desire to be a family festival with the free admission and food and drink discounts, Fromme added, "We also want to thank the community for 29 years of support."